The present invention relates to a device for active rolling walking.
The human being with his highly complicated ligament-muscle-tendon system and the sensitive, upright spinal column is built so that in nature he can advance on uneven ground. For thousands of years the human being has used and maintained his body in accordance with this natural condition.
Only over the last hundred years have we started to a significant extent to make the ground surfaces on which we live and move artificially flat and hard. When we move on such surfaces the body is used in a completely different manner from that intended by nature and precisely over this short period of human history problems have started to spread in epidemic manner in connection with the back, joints, veins, etc.
A few thousand years ago man discovered the wheel for the transportation of goods. He realized at the time that this constitutes a practical means for transporting heavy loads over considerable distances. The flatter the transportation routes, the easier transportation takes place. As a consequence he has adapted the transportation routes to the wheel and made them flat.
When about 100 years ago man started to make largely flat ground surfaces in the area where he was moving about he should, in accordance with the development with the wheel and in opposition to his walking system, have at least redesigned his footwear, namely in such a way that he can also xe2x80x9crollxe2x80x9d on flat ground surfaces. Only in this way is it possible to maintain the natural stride when walking and therefore the health of the locomotor system. However, the shoe industry completely missed this development.
It is admittedly easier for humans to walk on flat ground surfaces and in fact it is so easy that it permits passive walking for which only parts of the locomotor system are needed and has in fact enticed him towards passive walking. The consequence is shocks in the joints and on the spinal column. Unequal stressing of the locomotor system means that certain parts thereof are not stressed, whereas others are excessively stressed. The 10,000 steps made by a human on average every day challenge the human body. In the case of disadvantageous, unilateral stressing of the locomotor system, such as results from passive walking, shocks in the joints and unilateral muscle, tendon and ligament stresses give rise to widespread back, joint, vein, leg and foot problems.
The normal shoes with a heel have not been adapted to the walking situation on flat surfaces. Foot supports in the shoe and softer soles permitting a type of bare-foot walking are available on the market, but a shoe forcing the human to a planned, active use of his locomotor system and therefore simulating the unevenness of the ground important for it does not exist.
Slight disabilities or postural damage such as skew or flat feet are treated e.g. with inserts in normal shoes. It is assumed that as a result of the continuous use or wearing of inserts the desired correction is automatically brought about over a period of time. Unfortunately the opposite is the case and the relaxed muscle system is weakened, because it no longer has any work function. The dynamic change and further development of the state of the posture and locomotor system is not or is only slightly taken into account.
In the case of slight disabilities frequently a continuously used measure such as, e.g. the wearing of inserts, is unfavourable. It is very easy for the wearer wishing to correct an incorrect posture to adopt a different, new incorrect posture as a result of the static correction.
Neither shoes, nor the above-described walking devices, also referred to in numerous articles and patents, take account of the need to use the complete locomotor system through active walking and to be able to determine oneself and quickly in what way muscles, tendons and the spinal column are to be employed for active walking. Both orthopedic shoes and inserts can only be modified by an orthopedic expert. Consequently the existing means are unsuitable for conditioning slight and possibly also temporary postural errors and errors in the sequence of the locomotor system in a planned and rapid manner.
Physiotherapy is often a help in giving instructions for corresponding exercises and movements. However, this often has the disadvantage that therapy cannot take place permanently, i.e. also during normal walking at work and so on and the patient often does not carry out the few exercises recommended.
The problem of the present invention is to improve a shoe or other footwear of the aforementioned type in such a way that active walking becomes necessary. As a result the 10,000 steps performed daily are made into a natural, rolling coordinated movement. Uniform stressing of the complete body protects the joints, builds up muscles, straightens the posture and aids blood circulation (xe2x80x9cvein pumpxe2x80x9d). The device for active rolling walking is to be prepared by the expert and can be adapted by the actual user.
This problem is solved by a device for active rolling walking having the features of the present invention.